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I. W. HINCHLEY AND C. S. D. HARPER. EXPRESSING LIQUID FROM MATERIALS.

APPLICATION FILED DEC. 26. I9Ia.

1 ,3 1 1,070. I Patented July 22, 1919.

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l. W. HINCHLEY AND C. S. D. HARPER. EXPRESSING LIQUID FROM MAT'ERIALS.

` APPLICATION FILED DEC. 26. l9l8. 1,8 1 l ,070. Patented July 22, 1919.

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EXPRESSING LIQUID FROM MATERIALS.

APPLICATION FILED 0m26.191s.

1,311,070. raAnIeAJuly-Qz, 1919.

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UNTTED sTATEs PATENT ormoni.

I'OHN WILLIAM HINCI-ILEY, OF LONDON, AND CLEMENT STEPHEN DREW HARPER, 0F STOCKTON-UPON-TEES, ENGLAND.

EXPRESSING LIQUID FROM MATERIALS.'

` To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, JoHN WILLIAM -HINGHLEY and CLEMENT STEPHEN DREW HARPER, b'oth subjects of the King of Great Britain, residing, respectively, in London, England, and Stockton-upon-Tees, England, have jointly invented certain new and useful lImprovements in Expressing Liquids from Materials, of which the following is a specifica-tion.4

Certain materials charged with liquid do not readilyT yield the liquid `when subjected to pressure in a plunger press because of their comparatively high viscosity; by heating the material while it is being compressed the viscosity is reduced and the yield of liquid increased. This is particularly the case with peat, for which plunger presses have been constructed in such a manner that hot elastic fluid can be passed through the peat while it is being compressed.

VV'e have discovered that the viscosity of peat is so far reduced by heating it in a plunger press to temperatures such as have previously been used as an aid to the expression of water from it, thatv it may readily be extruded under pressure in excess of that required to expel the bulk of the water. Thus a press of the known type' in which the material under compression is extruded by the compression stroke, can be used, whereby" the advantage is obtained that the compressed peat is immediately exposed to the atmosphere in a friable or broken and highly heated condition, so that evaporation causes a considerable further loss of water which is not experienced when the press has to be stopped andl'nore or less taken to pieces to expel the whole mass of peat, which must then be broken up.

The'method constituting the present invention'4 consists, therefore, in compressing and hesrting in a plunger extrusion press peat or' lhe'urnaterial to expel liquidv from it land at the same time extruding the mass from the press.` y

The invention is particularly applicable to peat which, while con-taininga large proportion of water, is not so wet as to form a slurry when disintegrated, although the treatment of such .a slurry by the invention is not excluded.

A suitable press for this method is so conextrusion orifice the-material is compressed Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July 22, 1919.

Application led December 26, 1918. Serial No. 68,366'.`

in a direction at right angles to the direction of movement of the plunger and at right:i angles to the florw of the expressed yqui In the preferred form" the compressing chamber is rectangular in cross section and its sides are adapted for the escape of the expressed liquid, while its end contains the extrusion orifices which are so shaped as to give rise to the conditions dened in the preceding. paragraph.

For this purpose the orifices may be rectangular in cross section with parallel sides but with the top and bottom converging outwardly, and so restricting the area of the orice and exerting pressure on the material in a vertical direction.

The press is preferably horizontal and contains two or more chambers, the side walls of which are perforated and when necessary backed by a straining material, such as wire gauze or filter press cloth, supported by walls of cellular construction which should be grooved on the faces next to the gauze or cloth. These holloiw walls are so arranged that they maybe used both for withdrawing the expressed liquid and introducing hot elastic fluid into the material. in the press. iThus they may be provided -with inlets for steam or hot air and outlets for liquid, and the arrangement may be such that the whole or any section of the pressing chamber may be heated. The end walls of the chambers contain the extrusion orifices.

`Whatever the general construction of the press the extrusion orifices may be made of 'adjustable cross-section: for instance they may be capable of being more or less closed to vary the ypressure under which the material is extruded. `Such adjustment may be manual or automatic, the slides being moved,

weights, springs or constant fluid pressure,

yand opened by hydraulic pressure from the main cylinder when this latter pressure has attained the best extrusion pressure. slides should have knife edges where there is contact with the material.

For the purpose of continuing the re- The moval of liquid during extrusion the extrusion orifices may be lined with porous ceramic material supported with due provision for passage of liquid through it.

The accompanying drawings illustrate the invention.

Figure l is a longitudinal vertical section through a compressing chamber.

Fig. 2 is a plan partly in section on line 2--2 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a cross-section on line 3 3 of Fig. 1.

Figs. 4, 5 and 6 are detail views drawn to an enlarged scale.

Fig. 7 is an end elevation of the extrusion orifices with the attachment for automatically opening and closing them.

Fig. 8 lis a sectional plan of the whole press drawn to a reduced scale.

Fig. 9 is a sectional side elevation and Fig. 10 is a sectional end elevation of a modified construction.

Referring to Figs. 1-8, the press comprises two rectangular compressing chambers a in which the pressure is exerted by pistons b carried by the rods c of a hydraulic ram Z (Fig. 8). The walls of these chambers are cellular castings c held in recesses in top and bottom plates f f1, which are tied to each other by rods not shown. At the extrusion end the walls e abut against a platey g, in which are openings corresponding in cross-section with the chambers a, save that the top and bottom of the opening is curved as indicated in'Fig. 1. This curvature is continued as the top and bottom surfaces of the extrusion orifices t, which taper in this direction but are of uniform width, having parallel sides. The extrusion head is made upof two flanged castings i l and an intermediate plate 2, flanged on each side; the several ianges are faced to :lit together and the whole is clamped by bolts 3. The head is fitted against the plate g and tied by rods 4, to a collar Z1 on the sylinder of the ram d (Fig. 8).

As shown in the fragmentary section in Fig. 4e, the inner surfaces of the cellular castings e are perforated as at e1 and corrugated as at e2. The ltering surface may be a blanket e3 or a wire gauze e4t or both as here shown, and a perforated plate e5, these parts being held against the corrugated surface by a perforated plate e screwed to the cellular wall. Thus the liquid expressed from the peat passes into the cells of the walls e and flows through drain pipes 7c and mains 701.

During the pressing operation steam or hot air is admitted through pipe Z and valves Z1 to any or all of the cells of the middle wall e whence it can pass through the peat into the outer walls, escaping by Way of the drains k.

In order that the expressed liquid may continue to escape while the peat is being forced into and through the extrusion head, the inner surfaces of the flanged castings z', l and plate. 2 have cylindrical cavities fm in which are set circular plates m1 (Figs. 5 and 6) having concentric annular grooves m2 on their inner face and radial grooves 'm3 on their outer face, radial rows of perforations m4 connecting the annular and radial grooves. These plates support circular plates m5 of porous earthenware or the like. The liquid expressed through these plates m5 drains through perforations such as m, the plate 2 being in two pieces placed back to back and having grooves m7 in the contiguous surfaces.

An automatically operated shutter for closing the orice la until the pressure in the chamber a is suiicient for expressing liquid to the desired degree, is shown in Fig. 7. The shutter n, which has an opening in it adapted to register with the orifice L (the position shown in the ligure) is fixed at each end respectively to the piston nl of a hydraulic ram n2, n3. The cylinder of ram n2 is connected with a secondary accumulator under constant pressure, while that of ram n3 is connected with the cylinder of the ram Z (Fig. 8). At the beginning of the operation, when the pressure in ram 6l is low, the pressure in ram n2 overcomes that in ram n3 and the shutter n is in the position in which it closes orifice t. When the pressure in the chamber and therefore in the rams d and n3 attains a value in excess of that in ram n2, the shutter is forced into the position shown and peat is extruded from orifice la until the pressure has fallen sufficiently to permit the ram n2 to close the shutter again, thereb-y cutting off the extruded peat. The degree of pressure under which peat can be extruded can be readily adjusted by adjusting the pressure in the aforesaid secondary accumulator.

When, having completed its compressing and extruding stroke, piston b is withdrawn to the position sho-wn in Fig. 1, a fresh charge of the semidiuid peat is pumped or otherwise fed into the chamber through the opening o.

The modified construction shown in Figs. 9 :and 10 is such that the press is more readily built up and dismounted, and will withstand higher pressures than the construction shown in Figs. 1-3.

The outer walls of the chambers a are perforated plates p having flanges p1` and are held against the top and bottom plates g, which rest between these w-alls and the middle cellular casting c, by webs r, locked together by transverse cramps s, and wedges t. The top plates g are held against the internal pressure by wedges u between these cramps and flanged plates o, supporting the plates g.

In Fig. 9 the ram end is the right'hand of the figure and there is here shown a slide fw, the flange a of which engages the back of the piston b (Figfl) 5 as the latter advances the spring y urges the slide forW-ard to close the charging opening o.

The reference letters in Figs. 9 and 10 which are the same as in Figs. 1-3 indicate parts having the function described in connection with those figures.

The modifications required if the press is to comprise a single chamber a or more than two such chambers, are obvious.

Having thus described the nature of the said invention and the |best means We know of carrying the same into practical effect, We claim zl. A press of the character described comprising a pressure chamber having 1an extrusion orifice, means for compressing material in said chamber, and means controlled by the pressure in said chamber for closing said orifice.

2. A press of the character described comprising a pressure chamber having `an eX- trusion orifice, means for compressing material in said chamber, ya shutter for closing said orifice, means for applying a constant force to said shutter to hold the same closed, and means for applying a force proportionate to the pressure in said chamber to said shutter to open the same.

3. A press of the character described com- Qopies of this patent may be obtained for prising a pressure chamber having an extrusion orifice, a plunger in said chamber for compressing material therein, a shutter for closing said orice, `a fluid pressure ram for operating said plunger, a constant pressure ram for closing said shutter, and a uid pressure ram for opening said shutter, said lastnamed ram being subjected to the same fluid pressure as said plunger ram.

l. A press of the character described comprising a pressure chamber 'having an eX- trusion orifice, the Walls of said orifice having portions composed of porous ceramic material adapted to permit the passage of liquid, and means for compressing material insaid chamber and eXtruding the same through said orifice. y

5. A press of the character described comprising a pressure chamber having an extrusion oriice, said orice having walls provided With cavities and With means for permitting the passage of liquid from said cavities, grooved and perforated plates in said cavities, plates of porous ceramic material superimposed upon said first-named plates Within said cavities, and means for compressing material in said chamber and eXtruding the same through said orifice.

In testimony whereof We have signed our names to this specification.

JOHN WILLIAM HINCHLEY. CLEMENT STEPHEN DREW HARPER.

ve cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C. 

